Energy for Schools benchmarking report
Published 12 June 2026
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-for-schools-benchmarking-report/energy-for-schools-benchmarking-report
Energy for Schools (EfS) service helps schools switch to an energy contract that is used by government departments. This release provides estimates of potential savings and savings percentage for a typical school if they used the EfS supplier instead of their incumbent one during the 2024 to 2025 financial year.
The benchmarking was achieved by comparing the billed amount of annual energy cost from the incumbent supplier against an estimated EfS supplier charge over the same time and consumption.
The difference between annual incumbent energy cost and estimated potential EfS cost is provided in table 1 both as monetary values and percentage difference against incumbent cost. Positive cost difference and percentage values indicate savings to the school. The data is broken down by phase (primary and secondary) and by utility (electricity and gas). Data is presented as median value, meaning that half of schools would have achieved the indicated savings or more, the other half would have achieved less and for some schools there would be no saving and the incumbent cost would be cheaper compared to the EfS cost.
Table 1: Difference between annual incumbent energy cost and potential EfS contract cost split by school phase and by utility
| Utility | School phase | Number of schools in benchmark | Median cost difference (nearest £100) | Median percentage difference (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | Primary | 182 | £2,500 | 15% |
| Electricity | Secondary | 101 | £12,600 | 10% |
| Gas | Primary | 141 | £2,400 | 25% |
| Gas | Secondary | 88 | £10,600 | 24% |
Sources
Data used in the analysis and presented in the report:
- internal energy benchmarking data: school information (school name and unique reference number (URN)), incumbent electricity and gas meter consumption data, incumbent cost; all annual for 2024 to 2025 financial year (UNPUBLISHED)
- Government Commercial Agency (GCA) V30 energy basket electricity and gas prices per consumption unit (kWh) during 2024 to 2025 financial year (UNPUBLISHED)
- Get information about schools (GIAS) - Department for Education’s (DfE’s) register of establishments and schools with corresponding data, dated April 2026
Methodology
The meter level data was linked to GIAS using URN, only schools which could be mapped to a state funded school were included in the analysis, with all other records excluded.
Individual meter consumption was aggregated to school level using school URN and multiplied by the GCA V30 prices to estimate an equivalent cost. This is completed independently for gas and electricity.
The equivalent GCA cost was compared against the actual incumbent costs to estimate the difference in energy costs.
Caveats and risks
The benchmarking data was provided by the school and has been used as provided. Exceptionally, where basic data cleansing and due diligence highlighted a clear error, the corresponding meter data was excluded from the benchmarking.
Incumbent and GCA energy data cover the 2024 to 2025 financial year and provides an estimate of the potential saving over this period, there is no guarantee that will be the same in future years.
Benchmarked schools cover a relatively low proportion of school estate and are self-selecting sample so ability to extrapolate the findings of this report across the school estate needs to be treated with caution.